Entourage
by endlessvanity
Summary: After Wesker's death Claire and Leon join the B.S.A.A. Along with Jill and Chris they are sent out on a mission to investigate a secret facility conducting Wesker's experiments. They would never imagine what they are about to discover. Claire/Leon/?
1. Chapter 1: The Mission

**Author's Note: Hey guys! This is my first story attempt so I hope it's not too awful. I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit boring but I wanted to make a good introduction for the events that are about to take place. I might change some things later because the idea **_**just**_** came to me and I have no idea how it will turn out. As you will notice the main characters are Claire, Leon, Chris and Jill but a few more will be revealed in the next chapters. I hope you like it! Please review, it would mean a lot to me.**

**I'm also looking for a beta reader! If anyone is interested please let me know.**

**P.S. - I'm not sure yet if this is going to be a Leon/Claire pairing. There are definitely going to be hints but I haven't decided yet.**

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**Chapter One:** _The Mission_

Claire Redfield walked in silence in the narrow corridors of the B.S.A.A. building. The Terra Save project hadn't worked out for her ever since the outbreak in Harvardville. She felt incompetent just sitting in a desk doing nothing. She needed to be involved. She and Leon S. Kennedy after being recommended by Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, joined the B.S.A.A. as they were considered valuable members given their experience with the previous outbreaks.

Claire had 'worked' –even though it was more a requirement for survival- with Leon during the Racoon City outbreak. They both had survived and had become fairly acquainted since then. They had remained close friends ever since. The B.S.A.A. had ordered a meeting so they could be briefed for their missions. It was Claire's first mission ever since she joined the organization. She knew that it would be tough, much harder than their previous encounters with the infected. She knew that much when Chris returned from his mission with a few broken bones.

She was glad that Jill was still alive and that he was able to find her. He was devastated ever since their mission at the Spencer Estate. His guilt kept him awake at nights, thinking about how she sacrificed herself to save him. But now everything was good. Jill had fully recovered and was back to work.

She reached the briefing room which was packed with other B.S.A.A. members. There was a huge whiteboard and a projector on the desk. There were stacks of files and papers next to it. She found Leon sitting at the far corner and went ahead to join him. He looked taken aback to see her but he smiled at her.

"Claire.", he simply acknowledged her.

"Hello, Leon.", she smiled back. "How're you doing?"

"Fine.", he replied and added nothing else. He was a man of few words and Claire knew that.

She looked at him and noticed that his hair seemed lighter and his face was pale as it always was. He was wearing his usual brown jacket. It had become his trademark. Underneath it, he was wearing his B.S.A.A. uniform much like Chris's except for the fact that the shirt was black. She was also wearing the suit that they gave to her. It was too tight for her tastes and she would have preferred it in red but she wore it anyway.

"First mission, huh?", Leon said out of the blue.

"Nervous?", she teased.

Leon scoffed. "I used to work for the government. Nervous doesn't exist in my dictionary anymore."

Claire laughed. When had Leon become so tough? She used to remember him from when he was just a nervous rookie police officer. That was the image that had stuck with her. But many years had passed since that; change was inevitable. It was called growing up. She had done a lot of that, too. "We're all allowed to feel nervous sometimes, Leon."

Leon remained silent but he half-smiled. Maybe he agreed.

Shortly after, Jill and Chris arrived and so did the rest of the members. The briefing started with the chief of the Special Operations Unit making an introduction. He welcomed the newest members, which Claire noticed wasn't just her and Leon but a few other people as well.

He introduced himself as Robert Morgan, chief of the Alpha Team of the North American Branch. "You have all been informed about the success of the mission of Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Albert Wesker has been eliminated and B.S.A.A. member Jill Valentine was rescued with the assistance of Josh Stone." He started pacing around the room. "Albert Wesker's death though doesn't reassure that there won't be more outbreaks. He was suspected to have created branch facilities to conduct experiments on several test subjects in order to create a more powerful virus and bioweapons. As you all are aware of, he created the Uroboros virus which we have extracted. The special operations agents discovered some facilities to which the virus was deployed.", he turned the projector on and started pointing at a map. It was a map of Europe. "The first facility is located here.", he pointed to France. "Paris, France." There was a bit of commotion in the room.

"He had a base in Europe?", a B.S.A.A. member asked.

Robert cleared his throat. "Apparently, yes. We have discovered the facility's location and we are sending two teams to investigate. The teams are as follows." He went through the files and grabbed eight big stacks. "Alpha Team. Chris Redfield.", he said as he started handing the files to each member's name he called. "Jill Valentine." Jill looked at Chris and smiled. They were partners after all so there was no doubt they'd get teamed up. "Elise Girard." She sounded French. "And Ian Miles." He handed the files to everyone and they started going through them.

Claire was hoping she'd be in the second team; she wanted to be close to her brother this time. She had spent enough months worrying about him when he was away on a mission.

"Elise Girard will be your entrepreneur.", Robert said. "Beta Team.", he said as he grabbed another stack of files. "Bruno Lambert who will be the entrepreneur of Beta Team.", he said as he handed a file to a tall dark-skinned man. "Nathan Grimes.", he handed the file to a young looking brown-haired male. "And lastly, our new additions to the branch, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield."

Claire smiled as she heard her name. She smiled even more when she heard she was being teamed up with Leon. The two worked well together and she would feel secure having him as her partner.

"I would normally advise you two to be careful since it's your first mission but I assume you'll have no trouble.", Robert said as he nodded to both of them. Leon nodded as well and Claire turned to look at her brother with a smile on her face. "Both teams will be dispatched tomorrow at 0600 hours. Your plane leaves then. You will travel on first class. Read your files carefully. You are dismissed.", Robert said as he turned off the projector. People started talking again. It was a bit crowded as they all stood to exit the room.

"Looks like we're partners.", Claire said to Leon.

Leon smirked. "For old times sake.", he said.

"I hope it's different than that.", Claire said.

"Well, it's been more than a decade since then. We know better now.", he said.

Claire looked at Leon with admiration on her face. He was a grown man now. His bright blue eyes glimmered as he stared at her.

"Leon, you better look after my sister cause I don't want to have to worry about her, too.", Chris said as he approached them.

"Come on, Chris, I'm not ten anymore."

"I know, that's why I recommended you.", Chris said. "But you're still my little sister so I'm allowed to worry a little."

"You guys better get some good night's sleep tonight cause you won't be getting a lot of that as soon as the mission starts.", Jill said as she joined them by Chris's side.

She looked awfully pale ever since the last time Claire saw her. She looked different now, especially with that blonde hair. It suited her but it would take a while getting used to.

"In all seriousness, this is no game guys.", Chris said in a serious voice. "Sheva and I were send to merely investigate and we found Wesker. Expect _anything _and _everything_.", he only said. Leon was listening carefully.

"What do you think would be more dangerous than Wesker?", he asked.

"Like I said, we have no idea what'll find.", Chris avoided Leon's question because he simply didn't have a good answer.

"All right.", Jill said. "Let's get to reading our files. It's the most important part of the mission."

"Be prepared.", Chris said.

They all left the B.S.A.A. headquarters but even though Claire was excited for her first mission at first, Chris's mysteriousness and wariness made her worry as well. It was true they had no idea what they'd find so they had to be prepared for anything. Being trained by Chris though, gave her an advantage. Plus, Leon would be her partner.

What's the worst that could happen?


	2. Chapter 2: The Arrival

**Author's Note:**** Hey guys! Thank you so much for the reviews. I really wasn't expecting to get any. Also, thanks to everyone who added this story to their favorites. I'm so glad you liked it. This is the second chapter to the story and hopefully things will start to unfold. Soon, a certain character will make an appearance that some of you are either gonna like or hate. Not giving any hints yet; just keep track and you'll see.**

**Also, I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested. I'm not too certain about some parts and I could really use some help or corrections.**

**Finally, I made a banner for this story. You can see it in my profile page as I can't paste a link here. This is how I imagine Claire's uniform to be. I didn't change anything about Leon because his B.S.A.A. uniform cannot be seen from under the jacket so it suited me just fine.**

**Anyways, hope you like this chapter! Please, **_**please**_** review, I love reviews I think my heart skips a beat when I get one.**

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**Chapter Two:** _The Arrival_

The flight to Paris was long and tiring. Claire didn't really enjoy long plane rides but she at least managed to get a nap while they were on air. First class tickets were a wonderful thing, the service was incredible. She always wanted to go to France but under different circumstances of course. Fall in love in Paris, as they say. Maybe she'd have a chance to do that someday.

Leon was wide awake before Claire went to sleep and right after she woke up. Had he been awake all this time? He hadn't moved from his position at all. He was reading a book; she couldn't make out the title. His hair fell graciously all around his face framing it like curtains. He seemed really absorbed and she soon realized she was staring and turned her gaze to her brother. He was sitting next to Jill and Ian and they seemed to be chatting. The hours were passing ever so painfully slow.

When they finally arrived she let out a sigh of relief. She didn't want to see the inside of a plane for at least another month. She stretched and grabbed her luggage. They were all greeted at the airport by the European B.S.A.A. branch's chief whose name she couldn't quite remember. They were escorted to their hotel called '_The Parisian Plaza' _which was located in the middle of the city center. Claire watched the Eiffel Tower as they passed by it, as long as many other sights she wished she had been able to see on her own terms. This was a mission, there was no room for anyone to enjoy the city and go sightseeing.

Soon as they arrived to the hotel, they got the keys to their own single rooms. The chief told them they would be picked up at 0800 hours tomorrow morning.

Claire went to her room dragging her luggage behind. It was very illuminated by the lights and was painted in a warm orange color. A single bed with white sheets stood in the middle of the room. A mini desk was situated at the corner of the room as well as a TV set that was right above it. A small orange flower patterned couch sat next to the bed. The bathroom was small but bright. It was generally a nice room but she didn't think she'd mind if it wasn't; she wouldn't be spending much time in it.

There was a knock on the door. She went to open it and much to her surprise she saw Jill standing there.

"Hey, Jill.", Claire greeted her with a smile. "What's up?"

"Claire.", she smiled back. "Nothing really, just wanted to check if you're settled."

Claire nodded and gestured towards the room. Jill entered and took a seat on the couch by the bed. "It's nice. I mean, it's Paris.", she said in a half-excited half-disappointed tone.

"Yeah, can't really enjoy it when you're here to fight monsters.", Jill said. She looked around hesitantly as if she wanted to say something but she regretted it.

"Something wrong?", Claire asked concerned.

Jill pressed her hands on the couch's arms. "Look, Claire.", she sighed. "I'm not trying to scare you or anything.", she started. "When I was held captive by Wesker he did horrible experiments on me. He tampered with my head and I couldn't control my actions. I wasn't the only test subject there."

"How many more?"

"_Thousands_.", she only said.

Claire seemed dumbfounded. Thousands? Wesker really would stop at nothing. "So, we're about to assassinate innocent humans. Like you." Jill sadly nodded. "But maybe we can help them like Chris helped you!", she said with hope in her tone.

Jill shook her head. "We can't afford to be compromised. I just came here to warn you about what you're going to see. It's not gonna be pretty, Claire.", she said as she looked away probably haunted by her own thoughts. "We need to do what's necessary for the mission and that is to destroy all the biochemical weapons Wesker created."

"I know."

"You're with the B.S.A.A. now. You _need_ to be tough."

"I am, trust me."

"Good."

"I just wish we could help people."

"You can't save everyone, Claire.", Jill said.

"I know.", Claire only said as she remembered two people she couldn't save and would regret it forever. She could have done more. She _could_ have. But there was no use dwelling in the past. The safety of the world was in their hands now. Maybe she couldn't save who she _wanted_ to save but she would save a lot more.

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The next day, they all met at the lobby of the hotel, dressed in their uniforms. They were equipped with their standard Beretta pistols except for Chris and Ian who had the SIG 556 rifle. She was more of a machine gun person herself but the handgun would have to do for now.

There were two black vans waiting outside the hotel. Alpha Team was instructed to enter the first one and Claire and her team got in the second one. She took a seat next to Leon and opposite Nathan. She hadn't had the time to get acquainted with either of her other two team members but she figured it would happen eventually.

"Buckle up, people.", the driver said in a french accent. "We'll be arriving at the facility in approximately 20 minutes."

"Outside of Paris?", Leon asked.

"Oui.", he replied. "It's near Suresnes. We'll be there shortly. There are bulletproof vests for you under your seats. Please put them on."

"Vests?", Claire asked. "Why would we need _bulletproof_ vests?"

Leon shrugged. "Better safe than sorry."

Claire could only agree to that and she figured it would do her no harm. Well, they were uncomfortable of course, but making it back in one piece was more important than feeling comfortable. She loaded her gun and took a few bullets from the supplies in the van and put them in her pockets.

"If we stumble upon anything unusual we report back to headquarters immediately.", Bruno finally spoke. His accent was not as rough as the driver's. There was a French tint in it but it looked like he had lived in America long enough to be able to drop it.

"You need to define unusual because _my_ idea of unusual is a whole lot different than yours, Lambert.", Claire said. It was true. Unusual for them could be anything from a non-cooperative civilian to weird sounds. For Claire, unusual were horrifying monsters she had encountered before and even then she never thought she could ever come face to face with anything that would surprise her. When you're used to fighting monsters, you're ready for everything.

"Miss Redfield, I'm just pointing it out.", Bruno said almost regretting ever opening his mouth. Chris Redfield's sister was definitely a lot more experienced than he was so he was in no position to be giving anyone advice.

Claire nodded and turned to Leon. "You think we'll find anything?", she asked.

Leon was just finishing loading a clip to his gun. "I suppose so. Wesker was obsessed with the virus, I really doubt he hadn't made any back-up plans in case his other experiments failed."

There was truth to that. Wesker was a malevolent being. She couldn't bring herself to even call him human because he stopped being that a long time ago. She was glad he was gone though. She couldn't think of anyone else that could ever be more dangerous than him. The only thing that scared her were his 'leftovers'. What if he left something a lot more powerful than him? She hoped that wasn't the case but all these years she'd given up hope that the creation of these monsters would ever stop. Just when they thought they were finished and free from the virus, some other new threat would arise, much more dangerous than the last.

About 22 minutes later they arrived at the facility, followed by the other van. Claire got out of it, followed by Leon and the rest. She was in some sort of field. There was a forest on their left and she could see the Seine river expanding in the distance. It was a secluded area apart from a few buildings here and there but the biggest one was standing before them. She assumed it was the facility they had to investigate. It was a tall dark structure, with the label 'Suresnes Pharmaceuticals' pinned somewhere in the middle. The color of the letters was a faded green and the sign itself was worn out. It seemed like a normal facility but she knew better than that. Umbrella had used many facades and the people working there knew how to pick companies and locations that wouldn't arise any suspicions. Who would think there would be something abnormal so close to such a crowded area near Paris? They sure knew how to disguise themselves.

"Alright, this is it.", Chris said as he approached them. His rifle was holstered but he was holding his handgun. He was leading the mission. "We will split up and meet here at 1600 hours unless we are instructed otherwise. We will communicate through these headsets.", he said as he handed everyone a pair of headphones with a microphone attached to it. "Keep in contact and inform me about anything you find.", he turned to Jill and nodded. "Beta team, enter through the front door. We'll get the backdoor.", he said as he started walking away. "Keep low and be careful.", he said to everyone but he was mostly addressing his sister.

"Let's go, people.", Leon said as they all started walking towards the facility. The closer they got, the more gigantic it seemed. Leon walked to the front steel door. He examined the door. "It's locked.", he said as he tried to open it.

"I got it.", Nathan Grimes, the other team member said. He approached and took out his lockpick. He picked the lock in a matter of seconds. "Easy as pie.", he grinned.

"Huh.", Claire exclaimed. "You'd figure a place like this would have a more secure entrance."

"It's all part of the cover. I'm sure we'll find more locked doors probably impossible to pick.", Grimes said.

"Let's get inside.", Leon said as he slowly opened the door. After making sure it was clear, he gestured for the rest to follow him. The inside of the building was dark and dusty. The windows looked like they hadn't been cleaned in months.

"You'd think this place would be cleaner.", Claire said as she traced her finger on one of the windows and it came back with a thick layer of dust.

"I don't think they were very interested in keeping _this_ area clean.", Leon pointed out. He walked slowly around the gigantic room. The ceiling lights were flickering on and off, most of them almost broken. There was a flight of metallic stairs both to their left and their right. It looked as if the place was divided in two sections.

"This place is huge.", Lamberts said looking around in awe.

"We'll never be able to check this whole place by four.", Claire said as she looked at her clock. It read 8:47 A.M. They still had plenty of time but she knew that in places like these it was never nearly enough.

"We should split up.", Leon suggested. He turned to Claire for confirmation. She nodded. "Claire and I will take the left. Grimes, Lambert, take the right." The two men nodded. "Keep in touch."

Claire and Leon started walking opposite ways from the other two. She noticed there were stacks of papers scattered around the room. She picked one up, unfolded it and started reading out loud.

"_Suresnes Pharmaceuticals to be closed down due to insufficient funds. Over two hundred people about to lose their jobs. Large quantities of drugs to be left over. The founder of_-"

"_Due to insufficient funds_?", Leon scoffed. "Yeah, right. They probably needed to get rid of people that were becoming suspicious of their experiments."

"So, we need to find where exactly the experiments are being conducted."

"Somewhere in this building, I presume.", Leon said as he looked around.

The high ceiling structure made the room look bigger than it actually was. A huge torn fan was hanging from the ceiling, dangling a bit from the subtle wind. There were doors almost everywhere. They didn't know where to start.

"Let's take them by order.", Claire said as she pointed to the first door they could see. It was a metallic blue color, parts of it red, probably from corrosion.

Leon gently pushed Claire aside and stood in front of her in a protective way. "Let me go first.", he said trying not to make it seem as if he didn't trust her or anything. It was a nice gesture but Claire could take care of herself. He motioned for her to wait as he unlocked the door. It creaked a bit and they both took a peek inside. It was a messy office, books and papers scattered everywhere and some spilled coffee on the desk. There was also a metal tag that read a name Claire wasn't too interested in remembering. There was a dying plant in the corner. The drapes were closed.

"Looks like someone left in a hurry.", Claire said.

"Just a normal office.", Leon said as he looked around a bit. There seemed to be nothing of interest apart from a framed photo on the desk of a man around his mid-thirties with a blonde woman. "We could try and go through some papers but it would take us forever."

Claire nodded. "Let's move on."

They both started walking to the other doors, opening them one by one. They were all offices almost identical to the first one but not as messy. There seemed to be personal stuff still in the offices. "Looks like the employees' offices."

"It almost looks as if it was evacuated.", Claire pointed out. She had noticed that none of the offices were empty. If the people who worked here were actually let go after the organization closed down they wouldn't have left stuff behind.

"You think something _happened_ to them?", Leon asked hesitantly, putting emphasis in the words.

"You don't mean…", Claire said without being able to finish her sentence. She didn't want to believe it but it was very suspicious. Maybe the people weren't infected like Leon had wordlessly suggested. If that was the case, the place would be messier. Messier in the sense of bodily fluids, blood and guts lying on the floors. No, it was too clean for something like that. "Let's not hope for the worst, Leon."

Leon nodded. "Let's take a look over there.", he said as he pointed to a set of double steel doors. There were two buttons on each side of it. Leon pushed one of the buttons. Nothing.

"Maybe we should both try at the same time.", Claire suggested. She put her hand over the other button and silently counted to three. They both pressed the buttons simultaneously and there was a clicking sound coming from the door. "Why would they need at least two people to go inside?"

Leon shrugged. He pushed the doors open and they both went inside. There was a long white corridor almost like a hospital. What was a place like this doing here? Why would they need hospital rooms?

"Claire.", Leon said as he looked in awe the corridor that stood before them. "I think it's time we start worrying."


	3. Chapter 3: Cryostasis

**Author's Note:**** I wanted to find a beta reader before I posted an update but that hasn't happened yet so if anyone is interested, message me ASAP. Anyways, on with the story. You will see a new (**_**old**_**) character in this chapter. I don't know if it's predictable or anything. I've been trying to make the dialogues as realistic as possible so sorry if it lacks any descriptive details.**

**Thanks for sticking with me this far. Hope you like this chapter and if you do, please leave me a review, I'd love to know what you liked or **_**didn't**_** like. Any kind of critique is welcome since it's always constructive. :]**

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**Chapter Three: **_Cryostasis_

"There's absolutely nothing here.", Jill said in a frustrated voice. They had been looking for about an hour and all they found were empty rooms with no signs of life ever being there. It was like everything had been wiped out.

"Don't you find that suspicious?", Chris asked skeptically. "I mean, it all looks too empty. Like they wanted to leave nothing behind."

"You think it was set up?"

"Possibly.", Chris said.

"Let's keep looking.", Jill said as they started going through the building. There was a hallway that was quite dark but as they started walking further in it, there was some light near the end. "Looks like it leads outside.", Jill said.

Elise and Ian were following shortly behind them. "Mr. Redfield, don't you think we should report to headquarters?"

"Drop the Mr., Girard. We're all equals here.", Chris said as he kept walking, gun in hand. "Not just yet. We haven't found anything."

Just then a loud bang came from the end of the hallway. Everyone stopped at their tracks. "What was that?", Jill asked cautiously.

"Looks like we're not alone.", Chris said as he eyed his teammates. He nodded at them and they all assumed fighting positions, their guns at eye lever. "Follow me.", Chris whispered.

They started walking further until they finally reached the place where the light was coming from. It was a set of padded doors, still closed but had a large linear hole right in the middle as if someone had cut through it with a chainsaw. The light was creeping in through the hole but it was too narrow to be able to look inside.

"What the hell?", Chris said under his breath. "Maybe it leads outside?"

"Why would someone go through the trouble to cut through these doors if they only meant to go outside? The backdoor is not far from here.", Jill pointed to the back towards the way they had come from.

Chris tried to examine the door. He traced his fingers over it trying to determine what material it was made from. He tried to push it but it was as sturdy as a stone wall. "There's no way anyone could fit through here."

"You think we can bring it down?", Jill asked.

"Only if we used explosives.", he said as he kept looking at the door trying to think of other alternatives.

"Can you do that?", Miles asked.

"Yeah, but I need permission from headquarters."

"Go ahead then.", Jill said.

Chris nodded. He pressed a button on his headset. "Redfield to headquarters. Do you copy?"

A muffled voice came from the other end. "We copy, Redfield."

"Permission to use explosives."

There was a short delay from the line but the voice came back quickly. "Permission granted, use it wisely. Over."

"Thanks. Redfield over and out.", he said as he clicked the button again. He turned to his team. "We got permission. Prepare the explosives.", he said to Miles and Girard.

"You sure about this, Chris?", Jill asked.

"We don't have any other options and this looks suspicious.", he said pointing to the door. "We can't leave without investigating."

Jill nodded. She walked closer to him just in case the other two would hear her. She leaned in and whispered. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"So do I."

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"This place is creepy.", Claire said as she stood in the corridor with Leon. The place was too bright compared to the rest of the building and there was a faint smell of antiseptic still in the air.

"Hope we don't come across any dead bodies.", Leon said. If they did, things would get messy. Claire looked at him with unease. "Don't worry.", he reassured her as soon as she saw the look on her face even though he couldn't be sure himself. He started walking slowly and she followed coming to stand beside him.

The first door was wide open. They took a look inside without going in. It was a small white hospital room, with a bed right in the middle. The sheets were white and seemed almost new. There was a table beside the bed. There were machines against the walls with wires everywhere and a small chair to the right probably intended for visitors. Just a normal hospital room.

They looked at two other rooms that seemed almost identical. On their way to the fourth room, they noticed the door was closed compared to the other ones. Claire turned the knob but the door wouldn't budge. "It's locked.", she said turning to Leon.

"Do you have a hair pin?", he asked Claire. She nodded and proceeded to take one out of her hair. She gave it to Leon as he kneeled in front of the door and he started fumbling with the lock.

Claire looked around ready to cover Leon just in case anything happened. About a minute later a faint clicking sound was heard.

"It's open.", Leon said to Claire. She came and stood right behind him, their bodies almost touching as he slowly opened the door. He raised his gun and pointed it at nothing in particular just in case.

This room was different. It was dark and dirty. There was a musty smell in the air. The bed was messed and the sheets had tiny spots of a reddish substance on it. "Blood?", Claire whispered evidently shocked.

Leon's muscles tensed and he gripped the gun tightly. He pointed it around but there was no one there. He took small steps towards the bed and examined the sheets. The stains were old and stale. But the metallic smell of blood could not be missed. "Definitely blood.", he said as he looked to Claire. She was pointing with eyes wide to the bed. Leon looked down and noticed a small pool of blood coming from under the bed. He gulped and staggered back. He exchanged glances with Claire. Her gun was already pointing at the bed. Leon slowly kneeled down and tried to look under the bed. Tentatively, he grabbed the sheet of the bed and lifted it so he could look. Much to his surprise there was nothing underneath except for the large pool of blood. No bodies whatsoever.

"Leon?", Claire asked still tense.

"There's nothing here."

"What?"

"Just…", he said as he looked one last time at the blood. "A _lot_ of blood."

"Someone died in here?"

"Definitely. It's too much blood.", he said as he stood up.

"Why is it under the bed?", Claire asked. It was rhetorical question. None of them could know why. But the situation just got more complicated.

"We need to report this.", Leon said. Claire nodded. Leon pressed the button on his headset but it wasn't working. He pressed it a few more times but there was still no response. "That's weird.", he said. "Try yours."

Claire tried with hers but she had no luck. "Mine's not working, either."

Just then a loud sound like an explosion was heard from somewhere inside the building. Claire and Leon eyed each other and communicated with their eyes. They went out of the room and started walking through the corridor with small steps, ready for anything at all.

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Jill, Chris and the other two members shielded themselves from the explosion. As soon as the smoke cleared they looked to the now ruined door with a large whole right in the middle. It allowed more light to creep through and the hallway was immediately more illuminated.

Chris's body was hovering over Jill's in a protective manner. He was a lot bulkier than her. "You okay?", he said as he stood to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine.", she dusted herself off. "But _there_ goes our cover. If anyone is here, they know we're here, too."

"Let's waste no time then.", he said as he motioned the other two to follow him. They slowly entered the large room. They were standing on a round platform. Their boots made clicking sounds as they walked on the steel floors.

"Oh, God…", Jill mouthed as she looked all around.

It was a large facility with what seemed like thousands of capsules on every wall. They towered so far up to the ceiling that there seemed to be no end to it. Jill knew what this place was the moment she saw it. She had been in one of those capsules herself before she was extracted and had become a lab rat.

"This is just like…", Chris said without finishing his sentence.

"Yeah.", Jill only nodded.

The two other members stared at Chris and Jill with confusion painted all over their faces.

"What is this place?", Grimes asked.

"It's a cryostasis lab.", Chris explained. "This is where the test subjects are kept after they've had the virus injected in their bodies. They cultivate people."

"No.", Jill interrupted him. "They cultivate _monsters_.", she said with detest showing in her voice. "They wait for the virus to adapt to the body and extract the subjects to test if it accepts the virus."

"What happens if it doesn't?", Girard asked.

"They are disposed of."

"Disposed of? Like garbage?"

Jill nodded. "More or less."

There was a large panel in the middle of the room with a lot of displays attached to it. They both walked to it and examined it.

"Chris, you think we can access the security system from here?", Jill turned to Chris.

"Maybe but we'd have to break through their firewall."

"Sir, I have a computer programming degree.", Miles said. "Maybe I can do something."

"Go ahead, Miles.", Chris said as he made room for Miles to go to the panel. He started pressing a few buttons here and there and analyzing what he saw on the screen.

Jill looked around the lab and wondered what would have happened to her if her body hadn't had remnants of the Nemesis virus that had infected her in Racoon city. She would have been another one of these test subjects. Wesker only kept her alive because of the antibodies in her body that he used to perfect the Uroboros virus. She felt sickened by the fact that she had somehow contributed even though not willingly, in the creation of such a devastating virus.

Chris put a hand on her shoulder. "You okay, Jill?"

Jill brushed her thoughts away. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I would have come for you either way.", Chris whispered to her as if he had read her mind and knew what she was thinking.

She briefly smiled but was cut of by a banging sound coming from inside the room. It sounded like the one they heard before they blew the door up. "Someone's here.", Jill said going for her gun.

_Bang, bang, bang._ The sound repeated.

Jill looked at Chris confused. Then as soon as she realized where the sound was coming from her eyes grew wide. "It's coming from one of the capsules!"

Miles had stopped pressing buttons but he hadn't moved from his position. Girard was standing close to him.

"That's not possible; they're supposed to be in cryostasis.", Chris noted.

Jill was walking around following the platforms circular shape. She examined each capsule carefully.

"What are y-", Chris tried to speak but Jill interrupted him by pressing a finger on his lips to keep him from talking. Chris silently followed her as they searched for the capsule. The sound was becoming clearer and clearer until it was finally unmistakably right beside them.

"It's coming from that one over there!", Jill said pointing at one of the capsules. It looked like all the other ones, nothing abnormal about them.

"How are we supposed to get there?", Chris said as he looked at the capsule. It was about 20 feet above them. Impossible to reach.

"Can you make out the capsule's serial number?", Jill said to Chris.

Chris took a step back and tried to focus on the small letters that were engraved at the bottom of the capsule. "I think so.", he said.

"Miles, enter the number on the computer!", Jill yelled to Miles who was ready to type.

"3A…", Chris starting reading the numbers. "…6700F9-45YX78."

Miles entered the numbers on the computer and waited as it accessed the file. "I got it!", he yelled. "_Test subject: 918SV90. Name: Sherry Birkin._"

Jill and Chris immediately turned to look at each other shocked at the sound of the name. "Did… did he just say _Sherry Birkin_?", Jill said not even believing it herself.

Chris nodded quickly. "Miles, quick! Open the capsule!", he yelled as Miles pressed a few more buttons.

There was a sound of steam released into the air and the capsule started moving towards them. Chris and Jill just stared at the capsule at a loss for words, not sure about what they were about to see.

Sherry Birkin was a survivor at the Racoon city incident. She was found by Claire and Leon and was infected with the G-virus. Her parents were scientists working with the virus. Her father had become one of the monsters who later killed her mother but not before she was able to help Leon and Claire get the antidote for Sherry. After being rescued, she was taken by the government and had been missing ever since. If she really was in one of Wesker's facilities that would mean the government had been working with Umbrella all along.

The capsule hovered over the platform for a few seconds before it was released. The lid slowly started descending and a figure could be seen through the thick glass. It was _moving_. How could it be moving? As soon as the whole lid was retracted, a female naked figure could be seen through the glass in a greenish opaque liquid with a breathing mask attached to her face and needles with wires on her body. Her eyes were wide open and she was pounding on the glass with whatever strength she seemed to have left.

"No way.", Chris only said. "Miles, open it!"

"Oh, God, Chris.", Jill mouthed as she looked at him. They both couldn't believe their own eyes. "Call Claire."


	4. Chapter 4: Hallucinations

**Author's Note: ****Hello everyone! Here's the newest chapter. I finally found a beta reader! He's **_**CJJS**_** and he's amazing, he's been a great help and this chapter wouldn't be that good without him. Make sure you check out his awesome stories!**

**Anyways, on with the story. You'll finally see the character that will change everything from here on. You might wanna take a wild guess. I suppose plots like this have been overused but I'm planning to make mine different, hopefully.**

**Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews especially ****Cloud Ex-SOLDIER who pointed a very important detail in the story: How Leon got released from the Secret Service. I'm going to get to this a little bit later on.**

**That's all with my rambling, I guess. Hope you all like this chapter and leave me a review if you like. I'd really appreciate it. I promise the next one will be longer. Again, many thanks to **_**CJJS.**_

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**Chapter Four:** _Hallucinations_

"Did you hear that?" Leon whispered as he walked closer to Claire.

"Yeah." Claire said. "Sounds like it came from the back of the building."

Leon looked around. They were still in the 'hospital' corridor but it looked as dead as it did before. The walls were whiter and cleaner than any part of the facility they'd seen. Claire felt it had the feel of a hospital but the stillness wasn't that similar. Hospitals were usually crowded and hectic. Being in one only made her feel agitated, that's why she generally tended to avoid them. This place was too quiet though, which gave her the feeling it was something other than that. "You think someone's here?"

"Maybe it's Grimes and Lambert."

"No, they went the other way." Leon said nodding his head to their back. "But it could be Chris and Jill."

"Either way, there is someone here other than us. The question is, do they know we're here?" Claire said keeping a low voice just like Leon did.

The corridor seemed endless but they finally reached an opening. It led to a huge wooden staircase. It went both ways. It was tall and swirly like the ones old houses used to have. It didn't make sense since the building wasn't that old. They definitely had the resources to build better stairs. The whole building seemed out of place like there was no consistency to it. Like it had been built and then remodeled but parts of it remained untouched. As soon as they set foot on it, it started creaking.

"Be careful." Leon grabbed her wrist.

Claire nodded as she walked forward, taking very small and careful steps. The floorboards complained to the weight of the two people but they kept steady. "Where do you think this leads?" Claire asked. She tried not to look down; seeing how high it was only made her feel dizzy.

"Somewhere _below_ would be my guess."

"There are _always_ monsters below." Claire complained.

"We'll be fine as long as we stick together." He said as he looked at her and faintly smiled.

"You'll be my knight in shining armor?" she joked but then her expression changed upon remembering a certain person who once tried so hard to be that for her. _Too_ hard maybe.

"If you wan-"

Suddenly, there was a loud echoing voice Claire turned around carefully trying to locate its source. It squealed like a pig but at the same time the sound was screechy like a bat's. Claire turned to Leon but before she could look at him something launched itself at her. She didn't get a chance to see what it was; she only felt its weight on her and she struggled to get it off as it clawed at her maniacally. She had completely forgotten where she was standing.

"CLAIRE!", she heard Leon's voice sounding further and further away and soon realized she was falling. The floorboards gave way under her feet and she strived for something to grab onto during her descent. But there was no such luck.

She started falling and hoped it would end as soon as possible. She felt the rush run through her as if riding a rollercoaster only there was nothing to hold on to and no sense of her surroundings. It took her a few seconds to start screaming, she was too petrified to let out any sound.

She landed abruptly on her back, trying to use her elbows to cushion the fall, but it only resulted in tearing of the skin and extreme pain in her back. She went numb for a while as a way for her body to block the pain but when it subsided she winced and felt hot tears running down her face. Her head was spinning and she groaned at the agony in her lower spine. She brought one hand to her elbow and gently touched it until she felt a sting. Her fingers came back bloody.

"Claire! Hey, are you alright?" Leon yelled from above; his voice echoed all over the place. "Claire!" He yelled again as she didn't respond.

"L-Leon…" She managed to breathe. "I'm here!" she yelled even louder.

"Oh, God, Claire. Are you alright?" he asked.

She looked around. Her whole body ached but she would be alright. She looked up. It was a long way down. She was lucky to be alive. "Yeah, I'm fine!" She yelled as loud as she could. "Nothing's broken, I hope."

"Where are you?" he asked. "What was that?"

_Hell if I know_, she thought. She looked around. The place was too dark to see anything. She reached for her flashlight and turned it on. Even with the light, it still looked dark. The surface where she was lying on felt damp and the soft feel of muddy ground made her understand why she hadn't broken any bones. She checked the place thoroughly making sure whatever had attacked her wasn't hiding in the shadows. "Nothing's here." she said.

"I think it flew away as you fell." Leon explained. "Be careful, it might still be around."

She stood up slowly, wincing through the pain in her back, and dusted herself off. She made a full circle, trying to shed light everywhere around her. "I think I'm in some sort of underground tunnel. Looks like a cellar, actually."

She could hear Leon curse and she looked up. The light was much brighter compared to where she was. She shielded her eyes but couldn't see him.

"Claire, just hold on." he said. "I'm gonna try to find a way to get to you."

"Don't worry about me!" Claire yelled. "Just keep going down the staircase and we'll probably meet somewhere."

"Maybe I can find a rope." He sounded desperate. "There _must_ be something!"

"Just go, Leon." she urged him. "It's no use if we both get trapped in here."

"Alright. Just… be careful." he said.

"You, too." Claire said under her breath; he probably hadn't heard her.

She sighed and clipped her flashlight to her gun. _Here goes_, she thought. She started walking slowly her boots making a faint splashy sound with every step. The walls were made of dark red brick and there were small symmetrical indentations. She walked slowly and carefully. The pain in her back was subsiding, but the pain in her elbows wouldn't quite do the same. It made holding her gun difficult and tiring, and so eventually she put it back in the holster. She knew it wasn't a smart move but figured she'd have time to draw it back out if she saw anything since this was a one-way route.

_I hate this place_, she thought to herself. She always had a deep hatred for underground places, and sadly, during most incidents there would be one for her waiting to be explored. She reached a crossway with a lamp hanging from the ceiling. The light gave a warm feeling to the place but it also made her feel the presence of somebody else. Unless they had a back-up generator there would be no reason for it to still be on. Someone must have left it on for a reason. She was very wary by now and wished she wasn't alone. She hoped for Leon to get to her as soon as possible before something like the thing that had attacked her made another appearance. _What had it been?_ From what she saw during the attack it was dark and could obviously fly. Her best guess was a bat but the sound it made was unearthly. Ignoring the pain, she drew her gun back out.

_Which way, which way_… She didn't know where to go next; it would have to be a wild guess. She chose left and started walking along the path, but it was like the previous one, almost like a maze. The last thing she needed right now was to get lost. "Leon?" she tried not to yell. It was a stupid but desperate move; maybe he'd hear her if he was close.

She heard rustling in the distance. She snapped her attention to the direction where it came from.

"Hello? Anyone there?" She was unsure of what to do next. The wise decision would be to go back and choose another route. But she took the stupid decision and kept going. The rustling continued. "Leon?" she repeated.

She felt a soft brush on her back, and before she had the chance to turn around she was pushed to the ground. Her head hit the floor as she tried to look at the figure that was standing above her. She could only make out shadows and a few strands of auburn hair before it disappeared. It looked awfully familiar.

* * *

Leon tiptoed on the staircase in order to keep his balance, trying not to fall like Claire had moments before. As soon as he was on firm ground he paced faster, looking for a way to get to Claire. It was darker in comparison to the corridor so he took out his flashlight. The path was a straight line leading to a door. He paced faster and faster eager to reach it. He heard the button on his radio beeping. He pressed it and brought it closer to his mouth. "Kennedy here, over."

"Leon!" He heard Chris' voice coming from the other end of the line. It sounded rushed.

"Chris!" he responded feeling relief at the sound of a familiar voice. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah." Chris replied. "Listen, where's Claire? I can't get her on the line."

Leon cursed under his breath. "I… lost her." Leon tried to explain.

"You what?" Chris shouted.

"We… we were going down a flight of stairs. The floor collapsed. She fell."

"What?" Chris' voice was louder than before. "Where is she now? Is she okay?" Chris yelled even louder. It was justified, she was his sister but Leon was just as worried as Chris was.

"She's fine." he reassured him. "I just couldn't get to her from above. I'm looking for her right now." He felt guilty having to tell her brother that he had lost his sister but it wasn't his fault. He wanted to find Claire quickly. He was mostly agitated because he didn't know what that thing was. For what it was worth, there could be many more and they could be dangerous.

Chris sighed. "Just… find her, Leon. Please."

"I will." Leon promised. "What's going on?" He was curious about the reason Chris had called.

"We… uh… found something." Chris paused. "It's a girl."

"A civilian?" Leon asked.

"You could say that." Chris picked his words carefully. "It's Sherry Birkin."

Leon's mouth just hung open for a few seconds unable to respond. _Sherry Birkin_? What was she doing here? The government was supposed to keep her safe, that's why he was working for them. "A-are you sure it's her?"

"Positive. We checked her file."

"Is she… infected?"

"No, but she's a carrier."

"A carrier of _what_?"

"The G-virus."

"What?" Leon said. "We cured her back in Racoon city!"

"It was in a dormant state, just like mine." Jill's voice came from the other end of the line. "My guess is Wesker used her antibodies for creating Uroboros."

Leon was silent for a moment trying to take in all impossible things he was hearing. He didn't have time to process it all. His main concern was to find Claire. He sighed. "I can't talk about this right now. We'll talk later. I need to find Claire." he said as he cut the connection abruptly.

This place wasn't safe and neither was Claire.

* * *

Claire had gotten back on her feet, her head was still spinning from the fall. She was alarmed now; something had come at her moments ago but it left in the flash of a moment. Why did that auburn colored hair remind her so desperately of someone that couldn't be? And most importantly, why hadn't it attacked her?

"Great." she mumbled to herself. She looked around trying to adjust to the place. The path was narrow and dark. _Maybe she picked the wrong way_, she thought but kept walking along the path, taking slower steps this time, ready for anything.

A shadow dashed at the intersection that was right in front of her. "Who's there?" she yelled as she started running in that direction. "Leon, is that you?" She still kept her gun at eye level. Without giving it a second thought she randomly picked a direction and kept following the path, hoping to find something. Having a slow alarmed pace would do her no good in getting out of there as soon as possible.

"Claire!" She could hear a voice yelling in the distance. Was it Leon? He must have been somewhere close. She tried to follow the voice.

"Leon, I'm here!" she yelled, trying to keep contact. She stopped dead at her tracks when she saw the same figure standing before her only a few feet away. It was standing awfully still like an inanimate object but still looked very much alive. "Leon, is that you?" she whispered as she crept closer. The figure hadn't moved an inch. It was just staring at her. Claire swallowed a knot in her throat and took a deep breath. It could be dangerous whatever it was. She slowly raised the flashlight to the figure, revealing it from top to bottom. As soon as the light reached its face she gasped and staggered backwards almost dropping her flashlight. "No…" she whispered, unable to believe her own eyes.

The figure just stood there, unaffected by her reaction. It was _him_. It was impossible, but he was actually standing in front of her, alive, flesh and blood. Was she hallucinating? Had she hit her head too hard on the ground?

She could never mistake that face for anyone else's. On the outside, it looked exactly like him but something had changed. Something more than his appearance. He had rough angles now, and that soft young skin of his looked tired and abused. His hair was longer but still the same color it had been before. His expression was dark and blank. But his eyes… they weren't bright blue anymore. They were dark and hollow, glowing with bright red irises. _Like Wesker's_.

She took fast deep breaths. She was immobilized. The figure was as still as a statue. Why wouldn't he move? She tried her best not to stutter. "S-Steve?", she whispered.

"Claire!" She heard Leon's voice sounding closer. As soon as the figure heard the voice, his head snapped to that direction. Claire caught a glimpse of Leon running to her, his gun pointing forward. _Don't shoot!_ she thought but the figure disappeared, running as fast as light, knocking Leon over on the way. Leon might have taken a shot if he hadn't been that fast.

He groaned and Claire ran to his aid. She offered her hand and he took it, even though he didn't need help to stand on his feet. As soon as he got up, he immediately hugged her, tightly but briefly trying not to hurt her. "Are you okay?" he breathed. He let go and looked at her, his hands gently on her shoulders.

Claire nodded.

"You sure?"

She nodded again staring into the distance, to where Steve had disappeared.

"What was that?" Leon asked. He got no response. "Claire. You look like you've seen a ghost."

Claire turned her attention to him. He was looking into her eyes trying to find anything to bring her back to her senses. He was worried but mostly relieved that she was alright. "I think I did.", Claire said as she looked back over her shoulder once more and then back to Leon's clueless stare.


	5. Chapter 5: Explanations

**Author's Note:**** Hey, everyone! First of all, I would like to thank you all for the lovely reviews. Big thanks to my beta reader Colin (CJJS). Check out his stories if you haven't already!**

**Anyways, this chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones and there are quite a lot of things going down.**

**Also to the **_**lovely **_**Anon who commented on how Leon is incompetent in my story, I'm terribly sorry I'm not making him the big hero and all. Or maybe you think I should have him hit on Claire like a freaking douchebag. No, thanks, I'm not gonna do that. I'm trying to keep things realistic. I'm not gonna turn this into another fangirlish sex story. And you hate Steve, I get it. Nothing's happened yet though so you can't go jumping into conclusions. Anyways, I'll stop here, I don't wanna ruin the story because of some ignorant review.**

**Last thing, I promise. I recently made this drawing of Claire and Leon (yeah, he's in my story and I also drew him; I must REALLY hate him, anon). It took me quite a long time so I would really appreciate it if you checked it out. I think I'm really happy with the result.**

**anendlessvanity()deviantart()com/art/Claire-and-Leon-198754644**

**Replace the "()" with a dot . or just go to my profile page and click on my homepage. It's the featured deviation.**

**That's all I guess. Thanks for sticking with me this far, hope you like this chapter. Reviews are always appreciated! :]**

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**Chapter Five: **_Explanations_

Claire tried to come back to her senses after the encounter with St… She couldn't call him that; there was no possible way it could have been him. He was dead. It was just her mind playing tricks on her. She had spent most days regretting never looking for him, but she had come to terms with the fact that he was gone.

She would never really know how she felt about him. She didn't have the time. Before he died, he had told her he loved her. Sometimes she wished she would have said it back, but she didn't know if she could or if it was true in any way. She cared for him and had developed a strong bond with him during their struggle for survival in that dreadful island.

He was so young. Only seventeen years old when he died. He hadn't lived. He hadn't seen anything yet. He had so much life ahead of him. And it was all taken away because of a family of lunatics who wanted to have immortality. That's what angered her the most.

_Immortality_. It was stupid. The world was a messed up place and its condition only seemed to deteriorate as the years were passing by. Who would want to live forever in this hellhole?

"Claire? Are you alright?" she faintly heard Leon ask, as she was lost in thought.

She shook her head and snapped back into reality. "Y-yeah. I'm fine." She pressed a hand against her forehead. "I must be seeing things."

"What was that thing?" Leon said as he loaded his gun. It was a necessity now.

"I have no idea, Leon." She sighed. She didn't mention anything about Steve, seeing as how he must have been a figment of her imagination.

"Get your gun," he almost ordered her. "We gotta be ready in case it comes back."

"God, I really hope it's not another monster infested place."

Leon scoffed. "It's always that."

She sighed and shook her head. "Tell me about it."

"Let's go." Leon started leading her back upstairs. "Did you see anything back there?"

"I don't know." Claire said confused. She didn't have the time to check all the possible routes so she couldn't know. She looked around. "It's like a maze, and everything looks the same."

"You think we should go back and check it out?" he suggested.

"No." she said. "I just wanna get out of here."

Leon nodded. "Okay. Follow me." He took the lead once again. They went up a flight of stairs, which were thankfully much more solid than the previous ones and finally reached the top floor. It was dark and quiet. The quiet part worried Claire more because she now knew they weren't the only ones there. Silence was always a bad omen, like a tiger in hiding, waiting to pounce at its victim.

"Oh, there's something you should know." Leon broke the silence.

Claire turned to him waiting for him to continue.

"Chris called," he started. "He uh… He said he found a girl…" He stopped for a moment and seemed to ponder something. He looked uncertain, as if he didn't know how to continue. "He said her name was Sherry Birkin."

"What?" Claire said, looking disturbed. "That's _insane_."

"I know, that's what I said." he continued before she could say anything. "But he said they found her file on the system and all her info was there."

"Wha… H-How?" Claire seemed lost for words.

"I don't know, Claire. She was in a damn capsule."

"But the government took her!"

"I know but we never really knew what happened to her. I _knew_ they'd never keep her safe but…"

"They used her for experiments?" The very thought made her blood boil. After everything Sherry had been through, especially with the death of her parents, all Claire would have wanted for her was to be safe to live a normal life. But there were people who wouldn't grant peace to anyone she cared for. Wesker was one of those people. If he was the one who had taken her… let's just say he was lucky to be already dead.

"Chris said she was a carrier of the G-virus."

"But we-"

"I know. Let's just find a way to meet up with Chris and the others and get Sherry out of here. Then we'll talk about the rest."

Claire nodded and tried to get Chris on the radio. She clicked the button a few times but there was no response. "No signal. They must be out of range."

"Dammit!" Leon cursed. "Same here. How the hell are we gonna find them now?"

"We need to find Lambert and Grimes, too." Claire pointed out.

"Shit, I forgot about them." Leon pushed a few other buttons on his headset, trying to contact them in case they were closer, but he had no luck. "Nothing."

"Let's just go, and hopefully we'll find them." Claire said and started walking with Leon.

What had they gotten themselves into this time? Whenever something like this came up, they somehow always ended up connected with that damn virus. Claire was certain that it was a vicious cycle, kind of like a heritage. No matter who created it or continued it, it would still keep going on, from one crazy bastard to another. This was no ordinary mission, and they needed to reunite with the other team and get out of the facility as soon as possible. They would have to request backup, but of course something always got in the way of that. When danger was involved, luck was never on their side.

She took a quick glance at Leon. He was facing forward, as alert as a predator. She used to remember him from the hours they spent together during the Racoon City disaster. They were both so young and scared, but they managed to stick together and help each other out through the worst. Claire really doubted she would have survived if she hadn't met Leon. They saved each other's asses on numerous occasions and they managed to save Sherry. Or apparently, so they thought.

Leon turned to her with a quizzical look on his face. She was thinking too much and doing a lot less. She had fell into a damn hole because she wasn't focused enough.

"Claire, you're spacing out." Leon commented without looking at her too long. He had to keep his eyes forward as they walked through maze like corridors.

"_I'm _sorry." Claire said and ran a hand through her hair. She held a tighter grip on her gun. "I was thinking about Sherry."

Leon threw her a sympathetic look. He was worried too, but he knew she was with Chris and Jill and she would be safe. The eerie silence had grown tiring. It was like something was waiting in the dark. Both corridors were so narrow and so similar. The sound of their boots was the only thing that could be heard. He stopped for a moment and took the time to assess his surroundings, looking for a quick way out. He went to one of the barricaded windows and tried to peek through narrow gaps. All he saw outside was a vast green area with debris deposited all around. Looking a bit to the right, he saw a river with two large tanks connected to it through long drainage pipes. They must have been using it for chemical disposal.

"Looks like we're way up high." He looked down, trying to tell the distance from the ground. It was quite high to the point that it would make one dizzy to look.

"So, I guess jumping is out of the question, huh?" Claire joked as she walked to him and took a look herself. "We need to find Grimes and Lambert." She looked at her watch. It read 10:23 A.M. "They have no idea what they're doing, and who knows where the hell they are."

"The lines are still out." Leon tried to contact them for the hundredth time.

"They can't be that far." Claire gestured Leon to keep moving forward.

They made it to an unexplored room that was covered in dark brown wallpaper, torn at the edges. It looked like another office, but it was much bigger than the previous ones. The sign outside the door was gone, leaving a lighter colored area with its frame. It was very neat and minimal. Framed photos were hanging on the walls, people and places, mostly in black and white. There was a notice board on the right side with a few notes pinned to it. A dark colored computer screen was on the desk along with a set of big speakers. There were stacks of papers neatly arranged, bearing no similarities with the previous rooms they encountered. On the far end of the wall was a mahogany bookcase with glass windows. Books were stacked everywhere along with sleek decorations of statues and animals, mostly cats. There was also a glass box with what seemed to be a collection of bugs. They were all pinned to the box with their names underneath in small black letters. There were tons of species along with some very disgusting insects Claire was better off pretending didn't exist.

She went to the computer and tried to turn it on, but there was no response. "The power's out." she said.

Leon turned to her and rolled his eyes. "Just plug it in, dummy." He pointed to the cables.

They both laughed, and she plugged the computer in. Leon turned it on and waited for the main screen to load. A message was displayed: '_**Welcome to Suresnes Pharmaceuticals**_'. There were a few icons on the desktop, mostly of useless applications. He noticed one named '_**Patient Log**_' so he clicked on it.

"Find anything?" Claire asked as she was busy looking around the room.

"Yeah, I think so. Come here." He pointed to the screen. "Look, I think it's an archive with all the patients in the facility." A huge list of names in bright green letters was displayed on the dark screen. There must have been a thousand names in there.

"Check under '_B'_." Claire said. "Let's see if Sherry's in there."

Leon did so, and a file with her name and picture came on screen. Underneath was a long list of info and details describing her condition, symptoms, 'treatments' and basically everything there was to know about her. Even their own names were mentioned in there in the part about her extraction from Raccoon City.

"Damn, they kept close eyes on everyone." Leon stared at the screen.

"Yeah, they must have been at our tails for quite a lo-" Claire couldn't finish her sentence as soon as her eyes darted on a familiar name and grew wide.

There, under the letter 'B' was the name _Steve Burnside_. So he was really here.

"Click on that." Claire pointed to the screen with shaky movements.

"_Burnside_?" Leon said the name out loud. "Wasn't he that kid that was a prisoner with you in Rockfort Island? When you sent me that e-mail with your coordinates?"

Claire nodded. "That's him."

"I thought he… _died_?"

Claire avoided to look at him. Images of Steve dying on the floor flashed through her head. "He did. But Wesker retrieved his body."

Leon nodded. Claire was glad that he didn't continue with the questions. Emotional bonds were enough to compromise their mission. He just clicked on the name and an empty screen came on with the message '_**No Data Available**_'. "It's empty." He stated the obvious.

Claire frowned at the screen. It couldn't have been empty. If there was a file on him, they would have at least have some data in there. It looked like someone had tampered with the files.

"That's weird." Leon said.

"Maybe someone didn't want us to see what's in there." Claire said.

Leon tilted his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why? What's so special about him?"

Claire shook her head repeatedly. "I don't know, Leon. I just _don't_ know."

* * *

"Is she okay?" Jill asked concerned as she hovered over Chris who was holding Sherry in his arms. He had taken his jacket off and put it over her, trying to cover her naked body. She would be embarrassed when she woke up.

"She isn't waking up." Chris said. They had no idea whether that capsule was keeping her alive or not. If that was the case…

"We should wait a bit. Give her some time." Jill tried not to lose hope.

Sherry was supposedly twenty-three years old now, but the capsule might have slowed down her growth depending on how much time she had spent there. She was all skin and bones with pale skin like Jill's. Her hair was a dirty blonde color, maybe a little darker, but it was probably because it was wet. Jill or Chris had never actually met her, so if they hadn't found her file they would have never known it was her. But then again, maybe she had changed so much that Leon and Claire wouldn't have recognized her either.

While waiting or hoping for her to wake up, Jill took the time to take a look at her file. She found out after she was taken from the government she and was put it a quarantined facility where she was schooled until she was eighteen years old. She was involved in many experiments and projects as numerous scientists tried to extract the virus from her, but its dormant state wouldn't allow it to be identified. Later on, under orders from Albert Wesker she was transferred to a secret facility with the code name '_Oculus' _whose location was disclosed. She was placed in a cryostatic capsule in order to maintain the virus, or better yet its antibodies. It was monstrous; she was treated as a valuable object rather than a human being.

"My God, Chris…" Jill whispered as she stared at the screen in awe. "She's been in cryostasis for five years."

Chris turned to her with a shocked expression on his face. "_Five_ years? That's crazy." He turned to look at her. She looked like an innocent teenage girl.

"They used her as a freaking lab rat, treated as if she was just an experiment." Jill said with a disgusted tone in her voice. "It was all Wesker's doing."

"What about the government?" Chris asked.

"I don't know." Jill shook her head. She turned away from the monitor and walked to Chris and Sherry. "There's nothing in there about Wesker's involvement with the government. Maybe they never had her. Maybe it was just a cover."

"But why would they blackmail Kennedy to work for them?" It didn't make any sense. If it was a cover and it wasn't the government, could it be that Leon had been working for Wesker's people all along? Or maybe they were somehow involved. Everything was a freaking mess. They had a lot of questions that required answers.

"Jill, she's waking up!" Chris said as he felt Sherry move in his arms. He looked down at her. She was slowly opening her eyes. She blinked a few times, trying to adjust her vision and let out a small incoherent sound.

What would they tell her? That she'd been asleep for five years? That she'd been held captive ever since she was supposedly rescued? How could anyone say that to this girl?

"Uhh…" Sherry groaned as she opened her eyes, obviously unaware of her surroundings.

"Hey…" Chris whispered, trying not to startle the girl. She felt so fragile in his arms. "You're awake. It's alright."

Sherry only moved her eyes as if moving her head was too painful to do. "Wh-where… am I?"

Chris gave a pleading look at Jill. She would know how to handle this better than he would. Jill came over her, trying not to look menacing. "You're safe here, don't worry." She put on a reassuring smile. "How are you feeling?"

"…D-Dizzy…" Sherry winced at any attempt to move.

"Stay still for a while." Chris said to her, trying to keep her steady

"Can you tell us your name?" Jill asked.

"My… n-name?" Sherry looked around. "I…I-I don't know."

She didn't seem lucid. Chris turned to Jill. "Memory loss?"

"It's possible," Jill said. "Let's give her some time, though."

"Wh-who are you?" Sherry asked with a lost look on her face. "Where are we?"

"I'm Chris Redfield and this is Jill Valentine. We're with the _Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance_. You're in a pharmaceutical facility in France."

Sherry's eyes were fixed on him but it looked like she wasn't registering what he was saying.

"Do you know how you ended up here?"

Sherry looked around slowly and shook her head.

"She's disoriented." Jill said.

"All I remember… is _lights_… And people in white… All around me." She spoke slowly, as if it was all coming to her right at that moment. She probably had scattered memories of the experiments that they performed on her but couldn't have any awareness of the last five years because she technically was in some sort of coma. "Monsters…" she whispered softly. "Everywhere." She looked like a traumatized child. Her body was that of a woman's, but her eyes gave away the child she was. She didn't have the time to adjust to the changes all those years.

"Your name is Sherry." Jill said to her with a smile that was obviously trying to make her feel more secure. "We're here to help you." She gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Sherry twitched as if not expecting the touch. "It's okay." Jill reassured her.

"Redfield." Ian said. He had been standing in the back along with Elise. They had kept quiet probably because they didn't want to interfere in any way. Besides, if Sherry saw a lot of people standing over her, she might have panicked.

Chris turned to Ian who had spoken up.

"There's a map of the building here on the computer. From what I see there is an underground facility." Ian pointed to the digital map that was displayed on the screen.

"Underground?" Jill pressed a hand against her forehead and sighed deeply. "This is going to be another messed up job, I can tell."

"The entrance is on the B-wing of the facility, near what seems to be a Psych ward." Miles explained. Everyone was looking at him intently, listening carefully. "I don't know why they would need a psychiatric ward, but it seems it was intended for subjects who were… malfunctioning."

"_Malfunctioning_?" Jill asked.

Ian nodded. "It doesn't sound good."

"Well, we can't leave without checking every inch of this place." Chris said. He turned to Sherry who was lying still in his arms. "But we need to get Sherry out of here. That's our top priority."

"We've lost contact, Chris," Jill said. "Headquarters isn't responding, and neither is the other team."

"I noticed some activity somewhere in the facility." Ian spoke up again. "I don't know where it was coming from or what it was, but there are other people here other than us. It could have been the other team, but their position was too far. They couldn't have made it there yet."

"Maybe someone tampered with the lines." Jill concluded.

"If that's the case, someone doesn't want us getting out of here." Chris furrowed his eyebrows. He knew from the moment they set foot on the facility that it wouldn't be just a go-in-get-out thing. It never was, but now they had Sherry, and they needed to get her out as soon as possible. They also needed to find a way to get the lines up again. "Miles, check if you can find a communications room."

Miles nodded and turned to the panel. He started pressing buttons, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"What's going on?" Sherry asked. She was so lost; she had no idea who these people were, where she was, or who she was.

"Don't worry, Sherry, we'll get you out of here." Chris said. "Can you stand?" He slowly tried to let her go.

Jill came to help her stand while keeping the jacket on her so she wouldn't be exposed. Sherry stood with a little difficulty, letting Chris free of her weight.

Jill glared at him to turn around and he did. "Hold this until we find you something to wear." She fastened the jacket around her. Chris was so muscular that the jacket was long enough for Sherry, thankfully covering most of her exposed body.

"I found it!" Ian shouted and banged his hands against the panel. "It's not far from here."

"Alright, let's get going." Chris said as he loaded his rifle. He held it in both hands with a tight grip.

Jill also took her Beretta out, and she handed Sherry to Elise. Jill suggested that she and Chris who were more experienced should go first. Elise would follow with Sherry, and Ian would cover them from the back. Nothing had really happened yet, but there was no harm in being alert and ready. Better safe than sorry.

Sherry didn't speak another word as they exited her tomb. She just gripped the jacket close and walked with Elise, imitating her every step like a little kid learning how to walk. She stumbled a bit at first because her muscles had been idle for so long, but she soon got the gist of it with Elise's help. Chris and Jill walked alongside keeping their eyes forward and occasionally glancing to both sides. They worked well together, had been partners for so long they didn't need to say much; they knew each other's moves like their own.

"I think the next hallway leads to the Communications Room." Ian said. They followed his instructions and ended up in a room filled with computers, panels and three huge displays right in the middle. It looked as equipped as space station.

"This is not normal. A pharmaceutical company… even working as a cover for Umbrella's experiments couldn't be _this _equipped. There would be no reason to, unless there was something really fishy going on here." Chris looked around the room carefully. "Why would they waste so much money on this?"

"Let's not make assumptions. First, we retrieve communications. We ask questions later." Jill said to Chris.

"Miles, get to it. We need to be quick." Chris said. Ian did as he was instructed.

The room looked unreal with all those panels and displays. The control panel looked like it came straight out of a futuristic movie. Chris wasn't really good with computers. He only knew how to handle himself with a gun. Jill was no better, and he was thankful to have Miles on his team.

As they were searching around a bang was heard from somewhere in the room. Chris and Jill eyed each other as they simultaneously brought their guns at eye level.

"What was that?" Elise asked, startled with Sherry looking more scared by her side.

"Stay here, by Miles. We'll go check it out." Chris motioned to Jill to follow him. She nodded, and looked back at Elise. As soon as she gave her a nod she followed Chris.

They followed the noise coming from somewhere near the room. They were both starting to sweat by now and their uniforms weren't making it any better. Finally, it was clear enough to determine that the noise was coming from one of the numerous doors in the room. A tag on the wooden door was labeled '_Storage_'. Jill eyed Chris in an attempt to let him know she was locked and loaded. He nodded as he took the lead. She took cover by the side of the door as he slowly opened it, ready to open fire.

The room was too dark to see, and Chris used his flashlight to shed light. He gasped upon seeing the man lying on the floor with blood smeared all over him. The man moaned in a very familiar sound, one he'd heard so many times before. During the outbreaks every zombie he had encountered moaned in the same creepy way. His eyes turned into button slits as he raised his gun to aim. Just before he pulled the trigger, the man mumbled something incoherent. He slowly put his gun down and turned to Jill, who had also retracted her gun.

"H-He…lp…" the man managed to let out before he groaned at the pain in his chest.

"He's wounded!" Chris ran to the man. Jill shed light on his body and pressed a hand over her mouth to conceal her unpleasant surprise. His abdomen was severely injured, and he was bleeding profusely.

"What's going on?" Elise yelled.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Chris tried to talk to the man, who was pressing a hand against his abdomen. His other hand gripped Chris's arm tightly, smearing blood all over his skin. He was no doctor but she could tell a wound like that was fatal so asking if he was alright seemed very ironic.

"Ils… s-sont morts…" the man spoke with difficulty. "Ils s-sont tous morts!"

He screamed as he plunged his hand into his wound in a desperate attempt to make the pain stop.

"Wh-what?" Chris almost panicked. He knew how to keep his cool in situations like these, but the man's screaming was making it difficult to remain calm. "I can't understand a word he's saying!"

"Girard!" Jill yelled. "Get over here! Quick!"

Elise ran upon Jill's orders and stopped dead at the doorframe. She stared at the screaming man with eyes wide open, apparently losing her ability to speak for a few seconds. "He-he's… Is he dead?"

"No but he's going to die _soon_." Chris said to her. "You need to help me here, Elise. He's speaking in French."

"F-French?" Elise asked.

"Talk to him!" he yelled. There was no time to lose. The man was fading fast. "What is he saying?"

Elise made a visible effort to control her fear and kneeled by the dying man while keeping a safe distance. The man mumbled something, and she had to get closer to listen. She carefully registered his words, and her eyes grew wider than before. "H-He's saying… They're all… d-dead."

Chris shot Jill a meaningful look .She had the exact same expression on her face. They were in trouble.

"C'est… mortel…" the man whispered in a lower voice slowly giving in to the pain. The gurgling noise from the blood in his mouth made it harder to make sense of his words. "Ils l'ont… l-libéré." He gripped Chris's arm with whatever strength he had left. "Sor… _Sortir_…" He let out a small cry, and his grip on Chris's arm loosened.

Elise's mouth hung open. Chris looked at the man as his hand fell on the blood soaked floor. He pressed his fingers against his carotid artery. No pulse. "He's gone." Chris looked down.

They all remained silent for a while, mostly out of shock. It was never easy watching a man die, especially when you are unable to do anything to save him. Chris turned to Elise, who was still staring at the same spot as before. She mustn't have been in the field too long. It seemed like this was the first dead body she'd seen.

"What did he say?" Chris asked.

She didn't answer, and so he placed a hand on her shoulder and spun her to face him. "What. Did he. Say?" he slowly pointed the words out.

"H-he said…_it's deadly. They've_… _let it out. Get out of here_." It seemed she was mostly terrified by the man's words.

Chris put both hands on her shoulders and ushered her out of the storage room. He closed the door, leaving the dead man inside.

"Go to Sherry." He nudged her forward and turned to Jill with a puzzled look on his face. She looked almost too scared to speak.

"Chris," she said with a pleading look. "What are we gonna do?"

Chris looked at Sherry, and then at Elise and Ian. They were staring at them with blank expressions, as if they were waiting for them to say something.

Chris didn't even know what to tell himself.

"We've got to get out of here." he only said to Jill, who was without a doubt thinking the exact same thing.

* * *

_**Hope you liked it! Don't forget to review if you did. It keeps me motivated! :D**_


	6. Chapter 6: Revelations

_**Author's Note: **_**Hey everyone! Here's the newest chapter. Hope I didn't take too long. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favorites. I guess that's all for now. If you like it, please leave me a review, I love them. :]**

* * *

**Chapter Six: **_Revelations_

Leon and Claire exited the room without talking which made the awkward silence overtake the atmosphere. Leon tried to make small talk from time to time but Claire was spacing out. It was justified; Sherry was alive and apparently, so was Steve. They needed to get ahold of the situation, or something bad was going to happen. The worst part was that they couldn't contact anyone. If anything happened to them, no one would know.

Claire." Leon started.

She turned to him, still lost in her thoughts.

"You need to focus."

"I know. I just…"

He stopped and turned to her. "I know it's hard."

Claire shook her head. "Nothing makes sense, Leon."

"We're gonna get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I need your full attention."

Claire nodded.

"Good. Now, come on. We need to find the others."

Claire followed him and tried her best to shake off the thoughts. Leon looked so focused and determined, as if he didn't let any of it get to him. How could he do that? Claire found it impossible not to let her emotions get in the way. They seemed so different in that respect. Leon was as cold as stone most of the time, which made Claire wonder if he felt anything at all. It was a cruel thing to think, but apart from the feelings he discreetly showed in Raccoon City for that Ada woman, there had been no other time she'd been able to see Leon's softer side. She knew he had one, but he had probably learned to hide it well. He was always kind to her, but sometimes she wondered if he only saw her as a little sister. She hoped that wasn't the case. She already had an older brother and didn't need another one.

Either way, Leon's attitude was fitting; it might have been what kept him alive through all his missions. Maybe that was the reason Claire had been a member of Terrasave. She thought it was better not to be directly involved with the outbreaks, but it didn't seem like it was her choice anymore. Joining the B.S.A.A. seemed like the right thing to do. If she wasn't gonna get away with her hands clean, she might as well put up a damn fight.

It hadn't been long since she and Leon joined the organization, but it felt like they'd been doing this forever. In fact, they had; it just hadn't been accounted for.

"Leon." Claire looked at Leon who was walking to her right. "Why did you join the B.S.A.A.?"

Leon furrowed his eyebrows, obviously not expecting her question.

"Many reasons." He started. "After the Las Plagas incident I wanted to quit my government work. But of course they wouldn't let me loose; they said I was a valuable asset." He talked but was still alert of his surroundings. His bangs obscured the right side of his face. "Did I ever tell you that those crazy bastards in Spain injected the parasite in me?"

"What? You're serious?"

Leon nodded. "It was taken care of, though."

"How?"

"Let's just say I had some help."

"They really will stop at nothing, huh?"

Leon rested his back against the wall, and crossed his arms over his chest. The gun never left his grip. "The thing is, they're too secretive about everything. They knew the virus was involved, but they only briefed me about a small part of the mission."

"What part?"

Leon shook his head. "I can't tell. I'm sorry."

"But you're not bound to them anymore."

"I am, in a way." He shrugged. "My contract said I couldn't talk about my missions, even if I wasn't working for them."

It made sense. Secrecy was one of the government's main regulations.

"How did you manage to get them to let you go?"

"It took a lot of convincing and blackmailing. I used the fact that they had taken Sherry Birkin without leaving any information of her whereabouts. And mainly, I just refused to work for them." He moved from the wall and walked to one of the nearby windows. It was still light outside; a bright day. "I talked to your brother about it, and he said he could talk to the B.S.A.A. to see if they would recruit me."

Claire raised her eyebrow. "And the government said yes? Just like that?"

"I think there's a catch. They agreed to let me work for the B.S.A.A. but I indirectly answer _to_ them."

"Does that mean the B.S.A.A. is working with the government?" Claire asked.

Leon shook his head. "The Alliance works by itself. It's just my case that's being supervised by both."

"I don't trust them."

"Neither do I. I think they took it as an opportunity to keep an eye on the Alliance." Leon looked at Claire, and then darted his eyes behind her. He brought his gun slightly upwards, and his eyes narrowed.

Claire made a swift turn and looked to that direction. Seeing nothing, she quickly turned back to Leon. "What is it?

"I thought I saw something." He held his position for a while before making sure there was nothing there. He lowered his gun and sighed. It looked like this situation was slowly getting to him.

"Leon?" Claire looked at him confused.

"It's nothing. Probably just my imagination." He holstered his gun and brushed a few strands of hair off his face. "Let's go."

Claire nodded and followed. They had been walking around for a while now, but it didn't feel like they had covered much ground. The building was huge and they hadn't set a destination, mainly because they didn't know the layout of the place, but Claire hoped they would get lucky and eventually meet up with the others.

They finally reached a new location. Two white double doors stood in front of them. They resembled those of a hospital. This place was getting more and more suspicious. On the left was a large metal sign.

"_B-wing?_" Leon read the writing.

Claire shrugged. "Here goes nothing."

Leon nodded and pushed through the doors. They made no sound as they opened, and they walked into another one of those long white corridors. A gentle breeze blew in from one of the broken windows on the far side of the corridor. If it wasn't for the sound of the wind, the place would be as silent as a grave. There were numerous doors along the corridor both on the left and right, probably patient rooms. Was it a lab or a hospital? Nothing made sense.

"This place keeps giving me the creeps," Claire said.

"If this scares you then you're not gonna like what's coming next." Leon had his eyes fixed straight ahead.

It took a moment for Claire to understand what Leon was saying. She turned to where he was looking. A couple of feet ahead, a man in a white hospital gown was standing in the middle of the corridor. Claire would have thought he was looking at them, but she couldn't say for certain since his eyes where blindfolded. _Could he have been a patient?_

Leon signalled her to follow. She nodded, and he started walking towards the man. Keeping a safe distance, he stopped and aimed his gun.

"Sir?" He shouted and it echoed everywhere. "Are you alright?"

The man just stood there, slightly bent as if standing was too tiring. Claire noticed there was blood on his bandages. She held her breath for a moment before gripping Leon's arm and whispering in his ear. "Be careful." She had a bad feeling about this. It was hard to believe he was just some innocent injured man.

"Sir, can you answer my question?" Leon gave the man another chance to reply in case he hadn't heard.

The man took two steps forward and clenched his fists. He slowly brought his fingers to his head and put them over his eyes. He slowly started pressing them inwards.

"What is he doing?" Claire shouted.

"Sir!"

The man ignored them and kept gouging his fingers into his eyes. Claire felt sick to her stomach. "Leon, he's crazy!"

"Sir, stop!"

Blood started gushing out of his eyes and the man screamed. Claire looked away not able to witness the horrifying sight. The bandage fell, revealing two bloody holes. The scream had now turned into a low sob, and he started twitching. His bloody fingers reached forward, and he started running to their direction even though he obviously couldn't see.

"Leon!" Claire yelled as the man ran to them, closing the distance.

Leon just looked at him, eyes focused, gun aiming.

"Leon, shoot him!"

The man jumped for Leon, but met the floor seconds later, with a bullet hole in the through his temple. They both stared at the body as a pool of blood filled the floor around him. Claire pressed her hand over her mouth as she felt her stomach contents make their way up but she quickly swallowed. She had seen a fair share of dead bodies before –too many to count- but watching someone push his eyes into his skull was a whole new thing.

"We shouldn't have killed him." Leon said.

"What are you talking about? He was coming at us! He would have killed us."

"For all we know, he was just a self-harming lunatic."

Claire looked at the dead man. Leon had a point, but what other choice did they have? She knew better than to make the mistake of checking if the person was alright. That was how people got killed. If it tries to attack you, you shoot first and ask questions later. "I'd rather have killed a crazy person than have him kill you, Leon."

Leon looked at Claire as if he hadn't been expecting that. It seemed like he was convinced though because he nodded and took his eyes off the corpse. "We need to report this. Check if the radio is working."

Claire pushed a button on her headset and tried to get a response from the others, but all that could be heard was static. She shook her head but then snapped her attention back to the radio. The signal wasn't clear, but she heard a human voice.

"I heard something." She pressed the transmit button and spoke into the mic. "Hello? Can anyone hear me? This is Claire Redfield. I repeat, this is Claire Redfield, over." She tried to make sense of the incoherent voices, but the static was too loud.

"Put it on speaker." Leon said, and Claire did as she was told. They both tried to make out anything that could be recognized as a voice.

"…_**don't**_…_**.danger**_…_**wing**_…_**place is**_…_**meet at**_…"

"I don't understand." Claire said.

"I think this means we gotta be _very_ careful."

Claire heard a faint mumbling sound coming from somewhere close. She turned her attention to the source. A couple of doors had opened, and people in white started walking out. They were all dressed in hospital gowns, most of them with very apparent wounds. They looked… dead.

"Oh, God. Leon." Claire pointed to the corridor.

Leon turned to look and his eyes grew wide. "Not again." He drew his gun and Claire did the same. "What do we do? We can't shoot them all."

Some of them were tumbling around. They definitely looked like zombies. If there was one thing that made Claire feel a bit relieved –as relieved as one can be in a situation like this- was that they looked like the kind that had no other brain function than to smell, chase and eat. That didn't mean they weren't any less dangerous though. "I don't think they've noticed us."

Their voices turned to whispers. Leon moved closer to Claire. "Maybe we can go around them."

There weren't too many zombies yet, and it looked like they could make a safe break. Claire nodded and tiptoed to the left. She put her back against the wall and walked along the side, taking deep breaths and trying to keep as quiet as possible. There were some locked doors on the opposite side of the room. They trembled and banged. They had to be quick or they would soon be in the middle of a big crowd.

As she passed by one of the zombies, it seemed to realize dinner was somewhere near. It walked to her with outstretched arms, and she tried to press her back as close to the wall as she could. They were getting too close.

Leon's body touched hers from the side, and she twitched. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. "They can smell us. On my count of three we start running. We can make it to the far door before they get to us. Okay?"

Claire nodded twice.

Leon looked straight into her eyes and started counting. "One… two… THREE!"

He grabbed her hand and they made a run for it. The zombies behind them had realized their presence and were running after them. There was no way they would get to them though. They were too slow. They moaned and growled, but the sounds were gone as soon as they made it to the next room. Leon closed the door behind them.

Before Claire could catch her breath something grabbed her and pushed her to the wall. A zombie was pulling at her, trying to bite her shoulder. Claire pushed and screamed until a gunshot rang out and she felt the zombie's weight off her. Her heart rate was rising too quickly, and she needed a moment to calm down. She turned to Leon, who was coming towards her with his gun aimed at the zombie. He shot it two more times and went to her. She took deep breaths, and tried to calm down. It had all happened so fast. She didn't have the time to use her gun, and if Leon hadn't been there, she would have been a goner. She thanked him.

"Are you okay?" Leon put a hand on her shoulder. "Did he get you?"

Claire shook her head. "I got lucky." She double-checked just to make sure. "What the hell is going on? How can zombies _be_ here?"

"Beats me." Leon locked the door behind them.

"If they get out, it's gonna be disastrous."

"The place is on lockdown. France is safe for now."

Claire looked around. They were in a big living room sized space, with sofas and couches all around. There was a register right in the middle of it that made the place look more like a hotel reception rather than a hospital. All it needed was a sign that read 'Enjoy your stay'. _In hell_, Claire would have added.

Leon walked behind the counter and went through the stacks of files. Claire noticed a bunch of wheelchairs in a corner next to several tables and metal chairs.

"Hey, Claire, I think I found one of the doctors' diaries. Listen to this." Leon said and he started reading out loud. "_'Subject No. 6538 responding well to the process. The virus is adapting to his body and he's showing no signs of aggressiveness so far. Must be really close to perfecting it.' _There's another entry after that one. '_Subject No. 4739 failed to accommodate the virus. He's showing signs of cannibalistic behavior similar to those of the T-virus. To be terminated. Subject No. 6538 still doing well._'"

"What the hell? More experiments? What were they trying to create?" Claire said.

"Hold on, there's more." Leon said as he kept reading. "_'Subject No. 6538's cells are regenerating. Brain activity is normal, though reduced but most functions are normal. Will move him to the underground lab to begin Project Ondria. Monitoring required at all times. Subject No. 9824 completely overwhelmed by the virus. Cannibalistic tendencies towards itself. Moving it to the B-wing.'_" Leon stopped reading and examined more papers.

"My God. That means all those…_things_ we saw back there were actually zombies. That's why that man tried to poke his eyes out; he must have been one of those patients that were showing cannibalistic tendencies towards themselves." _Zombies gone nuts, great. _Claire thought it was time to start getting really worried. The files were showing that many horrific experiments were going down here and they couldn't know the immensity of the danger. Judging by the B-wing it was quite big. The place had to be neutralized.

"There are files on every patient in here." Leon said as he checked the register. They could look for more answers, but it would take forever to find anything specific. They at least had an idea of what was going on now.

"There ought to be more and worse than those guys back there." He pointed to the locked door of the B-wing. "According to this they were only subjects that didn't quite work out."

"What if they got to the others?" Claire immediately thought about her brother. She knew he was perfectly capable of defending himself and the others,but under the element of surprise even the best ones can fall.

"Let's hope not."

The door started banging repeatedly.

"Shit, they got to us." Leon looked around hastily and pointed to a bunch of tables and chairs that were close. "Help me with these."

Claire helped Leon push two tables in front of the door. They grinded against the floor and let out a screechy sound that made the hair on Claire's neck stand up. They pushed a couple of chairs, too, just to make sure. The barricade would hold long enough for them to be able to get out.

They ran to the exit but were stopped dead at their tracks by an overwhelming figure towering over them. It was about seven feet tall with large arms and a small bulging head. Its torso and legs were too bony compared to the abnormally sized arms. There were bones protruding from its joints. Its skin was transparent like a membrane and the veins and arteries looked more prominent. Its eyes were red with the vivid color of blood, and it stared at them like a lion would a gazelle.

"This definitely falls under the _monster_ category." Claire said.

* * *

"Alright, the lines are back up again!" Ian said, clearly content with the results of his hard work. He had been trying to hack the systems for a while now, and Chris noticed he was slowly beginning to get frustrated. Even for a computer tech like him, this didn't seem like a piece of cake. As soon as he was done he shot them a victorious look and Chris would have bet that if they weren't there he would have done a victory dance.

"Can you try to make contact with headquarters?" Chris asked.

Ian nodded and went back to pushing some buttons.

Chris took a look at the girls who were sitting in the corner eagerly waiting for nothing more than to get out of there.

Jill had been trying to calm Elise down, who was still insisting on saying they were all gonna die in here. Jill told her she didn't have to take the dying man's words seriously. Chris knew that it was mostly a lie, but there was no harm in trying to raise her morale. She gave Elise a moment to take it all in and after a while she seemed to be fine. After all, she was a B.S.A.A. agent. She had to be fine. Chris partially understood her panic since she was relatively new but he couldn't help but wonder why they had assigned her to this mission. Her nationality was one thing; they could need her help with communication -which apparently they did- but other than that it seemed like it was her first serious mission. Maybe she had never been directly involved with the monsters, but no matter how hard they train you, or whatever they tell you, unless you come face to face with them, you can't know how you'll react. Maybe she would consider a career change after this. Sherry on the other hand, didn't seem affected by the events at all. It was almost as if she didn't understand what was happening. Or the poor girl had witnessed death so many times, it didn't strike her as something unnatural anymore.

Chris tried to draw his attention elsewhere. "Miles, any luck?"

Ian was breathing heavily. This was taking longer than Chris would have expected.

"Is anything wrong?" he asked, hoping to receive a negative answer.

"Dammit." Ian placed both hands on his sides and stared at the screen. "There seems to be some kind of firewall blocking all communications outside of this place."

"I thought you fixed it?"

"I did." He turned to Chris and pushed a button on his headset. "We can communicate through the radios with the other team, but I can't get a signal when I try to connect to headquarters."

"Someone doesn't want us spilling any info on whatever it is that's going on here." Chris concluded. "I'll contact Leon." He dialled the other team's frequency and spoke into the mic. "Kennedy, come in." He waited a bit, but there was no response. "Kennedy, I say again, do you copy, Over."

Everyone was staring at Chris anxiously. Still no response. Chris glared at Ian waiting for him to justify what was wrong.

Ian looked clueless. He shook his head. "No, it doesn't make sense, I fixed it!"

Chris thought it would be best not to push the poor guy. He'd already done a lot of hard work. He was about to give up when a beeping sound came from the radio.

"Alpha Team… Can you hear me?" A familiar male voice spoke. It wasn't Leon's though.

"Grimes? I can hear you loud and clear." Chris replied as soon as he recognized the voice. It was the bulky blonde guy from Beta Team. He sounded agitated.

"Mr. Redfield, is that you?" A faint sigh was heard. "Thank God! We've been trying to contact you for hours!"

"Where are you? Is my sister with you?"

"No, sir, we split up; she went with Kennedy. I'm with Lambert."

Chris immediately remembered Leon informing him of that, but there was no harm in asking if they had reunited. "What's your position?"

There was a slight pause. "We don't know. We were just checking the place out."

"Sir, there's something going on here. Something bad." Another voice took over. It was the other guy, the French one. He could tell by the accent.

Chris sighed. He didn't want to scare them, but they were experienced agents, they would have to deal with it. "We know. We have a dead body here." He decided to omit the part about the dying man telling them to get the hell out of there. "Meet us at the checkpoint in exactly half an hour. Approach with caution."

"Yes, sir."

"Be careful, guys. If you manage to contact Claire and Leon tell them about the meeting point."

"Copy that."

"Redfield out." Chris cut the connection. All they had to do now was contact Claire and Leon somehow and tell them to get to the meeting point. Once they were out, they'd request backup to take over from there. It was not wise to continue the mission with only eight agents. Plus, they had a civilian, a very important one and a dead man.

"Good job, Miles." Chris made sure to thank the man for bringing back the connection. He then turned to Jill. "Alright, you heard them. We're getting out of here."

Jill turned to Chris with a troubled look. Chris wondered what it was for, but he understood as soon as he looked to Jill's side. Sherry was on her knees, hurling her stomach's contents on the floor. Judging by the amount of time she'd been in that capsule, it wasn't a lot. She couldn't eat solid food.

_What now? _He thought.

"There's something wrong with Sherry." Elise said. She was holding the girl's hair to make sure it didn't get dirty.

Chris walked to her and Ian followed. Sherry looked up and revealed an unnaturally pale face with blood smeared around her mouth. He looked to the floor. Among the spilled stomach fluids was a lot more blood.

"Sherry, what's wrong?" Jill asked.

Sherry shook her head and shut her eyes so tight it almost seemed painful. "I don't know… But it… hurts." She winced and when she opened her eyes, Chris noticed they were bloodshot red.

Jill looked at Chris. "I think it's the virus."

It didn't make sense. Sherry's body was supposedly rid of any harmful form on the virus. So, what was happening to her? He wasn't about to just sit there and find out.

"Let's just get you out of here." he said and they all agreed. Elise helped Sherry stand up and they made their way back to where they came from.


	7. Chapter 7: Trapped

**Author's Note:**** Hello everyone! Sorry for the extreme delay but I've been having kind of a writer's block and my laptop broke a while ago so I couldn't write anything even if I wanted to. Thankfully, got it back now and I didn't lose any of my files.**

**Anyways, thank you all for the lovely reviews (I try to always reply to them) and the favorites! I really appreciate it.**

**Sorry it's kind of short but it's all I could come up with right now without sounding redundant. Hope you like it! Leave me a review if you'd like. :]**

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**Chapter Seven:** _Trapped_

The radio beeped at the most inappropriate time. It was just their luck that they'd been trying to contact the others for a while now, but they somehow decided to reply when they were standing face to face with a monster.

"Shit! Run!" Leon yelled.

The colossal being stared at them with its protruding red eyes and charged at them, making their attempts at escape seem futile.

"Tell Chris we're kinda busy right now!" Claire attempted to make the situation seem a bit humorous, but that was the only thing it wasn't. If she was a pessimist she would say they were pretty much done for, but she knew they had faced bigger and scarier… things.

The creature lunged at Leon and threw him on the floor, separating him from Claire. It darted towards his position, but Leon was fast enough to roll on his back and avoid its possibly fatal blow.

Claire took advantage of the fact that it was busy with Leon and managed to shoot a couple of bullets at it. They didn't seem to affect it in any way. Some strange colored blood started leaking from the wounds she inflicted. She had to get closer.

Leon was doing a really good job evading its attacks, but he wasn't going to keep doing that for long. It outmatched him in both speed and strength.

"Claire, shoot it!"

I'm trying to! She closed the distance and took a good shot at its head. That seemed to get its attention,and it turned to her. There was no display of emotion on its distorted face, but Claire knew it was angry. She tried to keep calm and took a few steps backwards as she kept shooting at it. Leon joined in and shot it from the side, but the bullets didn't even make it cringe. From an awfully close distance, it threw its monstrous arm to her and its fist met her stomach. She winced, let out a choked shriek, and fell on her back.

Leon ran to her and tried to get its attention. He took out his knife and started slicing it wherever he could. It was no surprise that the monster noticed, and it turned to him again and rammed him into a wall.

"No!" Claire tried to shout, but the pain in her stomach was too intense. She struggled to get back on her feet as she uselessly watched the monster attack Leon. He screamed, and she saw blood dropping on the floor, blood she hoped wasn't Leon's. She shot at the monster again with shaky hands, but nothing could get it off her partner. Seeing no other option, she ran towards it, grabbed a chair on the way and smashed it on its back.

It dropped Leon and threw Claire on the floor. It was too powerful, almost invincible. They both panted and looked like shit. They were tired and scratched and bruised. And pretty soon, they would be dead, too.

Leon grunted and tried to get on his feet. "Claire, shoot it in the eyes!"

She let go of all the doomed thoughts and took a deep breath as she aimed her gun at it. She couldn't miss. Here goes. She let the breath out and pulled the trigger. The monster immediately staggered back and brought its hand to cover its bloody eye. It growled like a wild animal, but the sound was much deeper than that. It dropped to its knees for a few seconds, and after it stopped screaming, it got back up almost effortlessly. She had to get the other eye, too, or they didn't stand a chance. She pulled the trigger but the gun just clicked. She would never make it in time to reload and shoot before it came at her.

Leon was shooting from the back but it was useless. "No, no!" He screamed and tried to get up but there was no time.

Claire closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable pain, but it never came. She opened them and saw the monster dropping to its knees instead, as if some invisible force had bumped into it. She looked to the right and saw Steve standing in front of it, holding its heart that he had ripped right out of its chest. He stood there holding it and watched the creature's body sprawl on the floor as he dropped it.

"S-Steve?" What in the hell was that? How could be so strong?

Leon just looked at Steve in shock. "Wh-what?"

Steve stood steady, red eyes forward, body still. He didn't look human at all.

"Is it really you?" Claire asked.

Steve turned to her, looking right at her for the first time in years. But it wasn't the same.

"Is it?" he said.

"Who are you?" Leon was kneeling on the floor. He tried to get up but he grunted and gave up. "Why did you help us?"

Steve ignored him and looked straight ahead again. It was as if he was staring out in space.

"I asked you a question!" Leon aimed his gun at him.

"Steve?" Claire said his name again to get his attention.

"You know him?" Leon said.

Claire nodded. "What's going on, Steve? You're supposed to be dead."

He tilted his head. "Is that right?" His voice held a sarcastic tone which made it seem so different and unfamiliar.

Claire shook her head. She couldn't make sense of anything. His superhuman strength resembled Wesker's, and that made her fear that he was probably infected with the virus, which also made him a direct target to be eliminated. It was all too much to take in.

"I need you alive." Steve said, and without another word, he disappeared as fast as she could blink.

"W-wait!" She held out her hand, but it was too late. He was gone before she even had time to speak.

"What the hell is going on?" Leon asked. He was still kneeling on the floor with a hand pressed to his shoulder. He slowly got to his feet and walked to Claire. He offered his hand to help her up, and she gladly took it. She almost dropped to the floor as she felt her knees go numb, but Leon put his arms around her waist and helped her stand.

"Thanks." He let her go but she held on to his arm a little longer to make sure she could stand up straight. Her stomach ached from the blow, and the fall from before didn't help much.

"Was that Steve Burnside?"

Claire nodded.

"What the hell? How is it possible?"

"I'm just as confused as you are."

"What did he mean by 'I need you alive'? You think he meant you?"

"I have no idea. All I know is that it wasn't Steve. He was nothing like that. Something's happened to him."

Apparently something very bad. After the showdown with Alexia, Wesker took his body. He said he wanted it for the Veronica Virus,but she never thought he would be able to bring him back to life. In some twisted way, she hoped he would so she could see him again, but on the other hand, compared to the awful things he would have done –and probably had- he was better off dead.

"Did you see his eyes?" Leon said.

"Red."

Leon nodded. "He's definitely infected."

"I know."

"We need to go after him."

"What? Why?"

"Because he's probably the one pulling the strings here. He's our target, Claire." Leon made a point very seriously for Claire to understand.

"We can't kill him, Leon."

"We'll see when it comes to that." Claire didn't like that thought, and Leon seemed to notice. "Can you walk?"

She still was feeling a little sore. Putting any additional strain on herself would be unwise in this situation. "Leon, you saw what he did to that thing that almost killed us. If he could take out something so powerful so quickly, he could kill us with a snap of his fingers."

Leon nodded. He seemed to understand that. "Alright, we'll meet up with the others and go after him."

"Do you think we can rest for a bit first?"

He nodded again. "I could use a break." He smiled and put his arm around her shoulder. He helped her walk to the far corner and lie there. It was always best to have your back to wall.

"I'll barricade the doors." He went to the door the monster had previously blocked, grabbed a few chairs and stacked them against the door along with two tables. Once he was done, he went to the other door, the one that led to the zombie-filled corridor. The barricade was still holding, so he didn't tamper with it. He walked back to Claire and sat next to her by the wall.

Claire sighed and rested her head against the wall. "This isn't what I signed up for."

"It never is."

Claire nodded and sighed. Every time she got involved in such a mess, she would always flirt with death. She had gotten lucky so far but she wondered how lucky a person can get. One of these days, luck wouldn't be on her side. She didn't want to die and if she did, she didn't want to die like this; served as dinner to a zombie.

"Leon?"

He turned his head a bit to look at her.

"Do you ever wonder how different our lives would be if the Raccoon City incident never happened? If nothing ever happened?"

He let out a small laugh. "Everything would be different. But you know what, Claire? Be it Raccoon City or any other place in the world, it wouldn't stop. If it wasn't us, it would be other people."

"Is it too selfish of me to wish it happened to other people?" She felt horrible for saying this. It was a terrible wish but a very human one nevertheless.

"No." Leon smiled and squeezed the hand that had been resting on her thigh. "But I don't."

"You wouldn't want to live a normal life?"

"Yeah but if it wasn't for all this, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And I... I wouldn't have met you." He shrugged.

Claire turned to look at him. She didn't really have a reply to that. It made her heart flutter a bit, so she only smiled. It meant so much coming from him. He considered her an important person in his life, and she felt the same about him, but she couldn't tell if it was just that. Thinking about a normal life without Leon, or any of the people she met, she knew that things would be better, but something would still be missing. She imagined having a family, maybe kids, too. And Chris; she couldn't really picture him at all, because she couldn't remember him before all this mess. Even since their parents died, Chris took all the responsibility, and his job always took the best of him. He even went missing, and she had to go look for him. That was when she met Leon. Thinking about this, she believed that everything happened for a reason.

It wasn't of any use thinking about another life. The past would never change, and even if it was possible, she didn't know if she would want to change it after all.

Leon turned to her, probably troubled because she was being too quiet. "I wouldn't mind meeting you under different circumstances though."

Claire laughed. "Yeah, me neither." She thought about it for a moment and smiled. "Things would be very different, don't you think?" She didn't know what she was implying, but she let herself say it anyway, leaving its interpretation up to him.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and brought her closer to him. "Yeah. Very." He let her rest her head on his shoulder. "Take a few minutes, and I'll wake you up when we have to go."

Claire nodded and quickly drifted into a light sleep.


End file.
